Garry Trudeau Interviewed by AARP


Doonesbury © Garry B. Trudeau

What was the key turning point for you?

After returning from a sabbatical in 1984, I started to move the characters forward in real time, aging them, giving them jobs, families. I realized that by keeping them frozen in time on a college campus, I’d been neglecting all the generational transitions that I myself was experiencing. Ever since, I’ve been chronicling their life passages and watching two new generations come of age.

AARP = American Association of Retired Persons; so naturally:

Any thought about when the strip will end?

To be honest, I’ve been so preoccupied with my 50th year in the business that I haven’t given any thought to my 51st. We’ll just have to see. The continuing collapse of the newspaper industry may make the decision for me.

Read the entire interview at the AARP website.

 

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